Print media may comprise one or more coatings to permit and/or facilitate the printing thereof by one or more means such as, but not limited to, thermal printing, inkjet printing, laser printing and the like. Thermal printing comprises the printing on and/or imaging of one- or two-sided thermal media using heat provided by a one- or two-sided thermal printer. Thermal printing may typically be provided in one of two forms: (1) direct thermal printing in which one or more thermally sensitive coatings provided on one or both sides of direct thermal media are thermally imaged, and (2) thermal transfer printing in which one or more thermal transfer receptive coatings provided on one or both sides of thermal transfer media are thermally printed via a functional coating (e.g., dye) transferred from one or more thermal transfer ribbons.
Two-sided direct thermal printing comprises the simultaneous or near simultaneous printing and/or imaging of a first side and a second (opposite) side of two-sided direct thermal print media. Two-sided direct thermal printing of media comprising a document such as a transaction receipt is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,784,906 and 6,759,366 the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. In two-sided direct thermal printing, a two-sided direct thermal printer is configured to allow concurrent printing on both sides of two-sided thermal media moving along a media feed path through the printer. In such printers a thermal print head is disposed on each of two opposite sides of the media for selectively applying heat to one or more thermally sensitive coatings thereon. The coatings change color when heat is applied, by which printing is provided on the respective media sides.
Two-sided thermal transfer printing of media comprising a document such as a voucher or coupon is described in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/779,732, 11/780,959, 11/834,411, and 11/835,013, the contents of all of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety. In two-sided thermal transfer printing, a two-sided thermal transfer printer is configured to allow concurrent printing on both sides of two-sided thermal transfer media moving along a media feed path through the printer. In two-sided thermal transfer printers a thermal print head is disposed on each of two sides of the media for selectively applying heat to one or more thermal transfer ribbons interposed therebetween. One or more functional coatings (e.g., comprising a dye) from the thermal transfer ribbon(s) is transferred to the media when heat is applied, by which printing is provided on the respective media sides.